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R. E. WHITMAN.

Saddle.

' No. 242,175. Patented May 31, 1881.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ROYAL E. WHITMAN, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

SADDLE.

SPECIFICATION forming" part of Letters Patent No. 242,175, dated May 31,1881.

Application filed March 13, 1880.

junction with comfort both to the rider and V mel.

horse; and this I obtain by a structure entirel y of wood, having thebearing-bars as well as the riders seat of such configuration that nopadding of any kind in either is required to form a complete saddle,which in the ordinary process of construction of saddles would occupyastage corresponding to the saddletree, but which in this case, though acomplete saddle, is comparatively a skeleton, in having only bars toconform to the horses back, so as to evenly bear throughout everyportion of their surface, and the seat provided by a thin sheet held inthe position to afford an easy, safe seat to the rider, and the two socombined as to enable both to require but little stock to have allrequisite strength.

In the drawings, Fig. I is a front view, and Fig; II a side elevation,of my side-saddle.

Upon side bars, B, formed to evenly bear over their surface upon eachside of the ridge of the horses back, while leaving the backbone toextend between them, are secured at points opposite each other, and nearthe rear ends of the bars, supports 10, as shown in Fig. II, to form ineffecta false cantle presenting an upper bearing-surface nearly in ahorizontal plane and nearly at a level with the pom- Upon the elevatedfiat bearingsurface thus presented by supports w is firmly secured oneend of a wooden sheet, which, being secured at its other end to thepommel, forms the saddle-seat W, offering a wide nearly flat surface,

(ModelJ which, when the saddle is on thehorse, extends from pommel tofalse cantle in a proper horizontal line to prevent the rider fromslipping in either direction.

Upon the bars B at the pommel are secured the horns common toside-saddles.

By thus giving the bearing-surface of the bars B the configurationshown, and by thus elevating and forming the surface of the seat W,these parts are only given the weight consisteut with the strengthrequisite to sustain the weight of the rider, and by obviating thenecessity of padding in any part of the structure the minimum of weightis secured, together with cleanliness and an exemption from the effectsof atmospheric causes.

Although the component parts of this saddle may consist of sections ofwood of any shape, joined in any convenient manner to give the saddleits peculiar form, in practice I prefer to attain the greatest strength,as well as perfect exemption from subsequent change of form throughwarping or other causes, by building up the bars, as well as the seat,of layers of shaving-board, which, when united by glue or otherwise andarranged to have the grain of their wood cross, efl'ectually serve thesepurposes. 4

In Fig. II the letters d cl b indicate the laminations of theshaving-board sections in a saddle thus built up.

Having described my invention, what I claim is In side-saddles, the sidebars, B, support 20, and seat W, all combined and arranged, as shown anddescribed, to form a complete wooden saddle, to dispense with paddingboth in the seat and bars.

R. E. WHITMAN.

Witnesses:

R. F. HYDE, T. M. BROWN.

